The Role of Kurdish Journalism in Language Preservation and Development of Kurdish Nationalism in the 20th Century

Abstract 

This article explores the coinciding development of Kurdish journalism and Kurdish nationalism across Greater Kurdistan in the 20th century. It also underscores the role of journalism in preserving the Kurdish language and advancing Kurdish nationalism.

Introduction

The Kurdish language has endured significant challenges stemming from feudalism and occupation throughout its history. Feudal systems often suppressed linguistic diversity, favoring dominant languages for administrative and cultural purposes, relegating Kurdish to the margins. Equally, the Kurdish language faced significant challenges due to the historical dominance and widespread influence of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages (Gunter, 2018). Arabic served as the language of religious and legal discourse, while Ottoman Turkish was utilized for administrative purposes within the state, meanwhile Persian was viewed as the language associated with high culture and intellectual pursuits (Gunter, 2018). These linguistic dynamics contributed to the suppression and relegation of Kurdish dialects, inhibiting their development and recognition within broader society (ibid). Moreover, the lack of written Kurdish literature and the dominance of oral traditions had caused a rise in illiteracy for Kurds and made it more challenging for the Kurdish language to survive amongst the other languages (Hassanpur, 1996). Indeed, periods of occupation by various empires and later modern states further exacerbated these struggles, with rulers imposing linguistic policies that sought to diminish Kurdish identity and assimilate its speakers. These pressures restricted opportunities for Kurdish language development, education, and cultural expression, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization and endangerment. Despite these obstacles, attempts were made by prominent Kurdish figures to keep the Kurdish language alive. Against the rule of the occupying Ottomans, Persians, and Arabs, two prominent figures in Kurdish nationalism, Ehmede Khani (1651-1706) and Haji Qadri Koyi (1817-1897), asserted that Kurdish sovereignty could only be attained through a combination of literary tradition symbolized by the pen and political authority represented by the sword (Hassanpour, 1996). Haci Qadiri Koyi urged the Kurdish intelligentsia to make use of modern tools, namely journals and newspapers to communicate to the masses in Kurdish.

A hundred epistles and odes are not worth a penny [anymore] 

 Newspaper and magazines have [now] become valuable and respected.

Despite their advocacy, the oral tradition remained dominant among Kurds until the late 19th and early 20th centuries (ibid). The rise of written Kurdish literature and journalism coincided with the rise of modern Kurdish nationalism. According to Kreyenbroek (1990: 56), 'Over the 19th century, something like a Kurdish nationalism began to develop’’ thereafter, Kurdish intellectuals began writing periodicals, some of which promoted the liberation of Kurdistan. This is reaffirmed by Hassanpour (1991), who writes that the transition from oral tradition to print culture was motivated by ethnic or nationalist awareness. The congruent development of Kurdish nationalism and journalism is unsurprising. In part, the mutual reinforcement is due to linguistic reasons. The suppression of the Kurdish language by nation-states was part of systemic assimilation and denialist efforts. These policies made it so that Kurdish became a  a primary component of the Kurdish identity itself; the language as a marker that distinguishes the Kurds as a nation. As (Galip, 2015) mentions, it is often thought that the death of the Kurdish language is equal to the death of the Kurdish nation. Therefore, preserving the Kurdish language became akin to preserving Kurdish identity. 

The repression of the Kurdish language has been a systematic effort by central states since the borders of 1918 were established. In attempting to homogenize the peoples within their borders, the nation-states of Iran, the Republic of Turkey, and later Arab states (especially Syria) systematized the suppression of the Kurdish language through the centralization and modernization policies in their nation and state-building programs. These programs required violent methods used by state builders to employ against minorities perceived as 'outsiders. The homogenization of peoples requires the state builders to define the state, impose a normative order, and cultivate an identity (based on the dominant ethnicity) to create a unified, mono-ethnic citizenry. Usually, the elites of the most powerful or majority ethnic group take over. In post-Qajar Iran, it was the Pahlavis who took charge of the state apparatus and subordinated the 'outsiders'. Heather Rae defines the strategies of pathological homogenization in terms of legal attempts to exclude minority groups from citizenship rights, forced conversion, assimilation, expulsion, and extermination strategies. Centralization strategies implemented by elites follow the Westphalian state model - imbued with industrialized economies, and state-controlled nationalist projects to reconstruct or create states - that in practice are heavily exclusionist. The imposition of dominant nationhood would not leave any space - socially, politically, or economically - to accommodate the aspirations and culturally expressive activities of minorities. In Iran, this manifested in the suppression of non-Persian cultures and identities (Matthee, 2003: 137, 139). All languages except Persian were suppressed in education, media, and public administration until the abdication of Reza Shah in 1941 (Jaffer Sheyholislami: 643). Similarly, the Kurdish language was subject to several bans by the Republic of Turkey. In its early nation-building stages, the state imposed Turkish as the lingua franca despite Turkish society being a multi-lingual one. Turkey's language policies towards Kurdish could be described as an attempted linguicide, as they were heavily assimilative ( Arsalan, 2015). Kurdish was banned in educational and public spheres (Hassanpour 1992; Skutnabb-Kangas 2012; Fernandes 2012; O'Driscoll 2014). In the name of article 42.9 of the constitution, Turkish became the official language of instruction, facilitating the bans on teaching in Kurdish (HRW,1997). Following the coup of 1980, Law No. 2932, passed in 1983, prohibited publishing and broadcasting in any language besides Turkish, consequently, Kurdish was banned in the private sphere as well. The argument that language plays a central role in nationalism and nation-building is reinforced by the facts stated above. Seeing that the central states of Iran, Turkey, and Syria endorsed Persian, Turkish, and Arabic, the centrality of language to nationalism is elucidated. Likewise, for the Kurds, the Kurdish language was inherently tied to Kurdish nationalism. As such, efforts to preserve and publish in Kurdish have largely been made by Kurdish political nationalist actors. 

Kurdish Journalism in the Ottoman Republic and The Republic of Turkey

Under the Ottoman Empire, all journals and books published in Kurdish were printed outside of Kurdistan; in Cairo, Baghdad, and Istanbul, where censorship was less effective. This included the first Kurdish newspaper – Kurdistan, first published on April 22, 1898, in Cairo by Miqdad Madhat Bedirkhan. A prominent Kurdish intellectual, Miqdad Bedirkhan embarked on the publication of Kurdistan with a dual aim: to elevate the prominence of Kurdistan while simultaneously leveraging its content to advance Kurdish education in their native language (Sapan, 2023). Furthermore, the newspaper served as a platform for exposing the injustices perpetrated by the Ottoman Sultan and his officials, shedding light on the struggles faced by the people (ibid). As it was published under Ottoman rule, the journal was quickly censored. As a result, the journal moved to be published from Geneva, and later to England (Azeez, 2023). 'Kurdistan' is a milestone in the history of Kurdish media, its publication paved a path for other Kurdish-language journals and newspapers to be produced in Kurdistan and abroad.

In 1912, "Roja Kurd" a monthly journal was published by the Kurdish youth group 'Hevi' in Istanbul (Ryan, 1944). However, only three issues here were published before it became restricted (ibid). Abdul Rahim Rahmi Hakari (1890–1958) was one of the early Kurdish poets, he published his early modern poems in Zhin magazine in Istanbul before the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey following the establishment of the Turkish Republic (Bozarslan et al., 2021). Government policy towards the Kurdish language has historically followed a pattern of systematic suppression, to the point that in 1924, Kurdish educational institutions, publications, and even conversations were prohibited, the terms "Kurd" and "Kurdistan" were declared illegal, and instead, the term "Mountain Turk" emerged and numerous places were renamed with Turkish appellations as part of this governmental policy (Allison, 2018(. The practice of banning the Kurdish press would continue throughout the 20th century. Therefore, Kurdish literature and its various genres did not have any opportunity to develop in Turkey until the early 1990s (ibid).

Kurdish journalism in Iran

In Iran, the first Kurdish text to be printed was a Kurdish-Persian dictionary that appeared in 1885. It was not until 1921 and the nationalist efforts of Simko Shikak that Kurdish texts began to emerge more widely. Simko Shikak had led a nationalist movement amid two concurrent dynamics – the weakening of the Qajar state in Kurdish areas in Iran during the First World War, and the rising nationalist discourse coming from Kurds in the Ottoman Empire. Simko's movement resisted Iranian political centralization. To pursue his political goals, Simko used modern tools recommended by Haji Qadiri Koyi – journals and newspapers. In 1921, Simko seized a printing press in Urmiye. With the help of Abdulrazzaq Bedirkhan, he published 'Roji Kurd'. After Simko Shikak died in 1922, the government of Iran would go on to ban all non-Persian publications. Until the abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, Kurdish groups had to publish underground in Tabriz. The greatest efforts following Simko's were done by Komalay Jiyanaway Kurd, a modern political organization that also published a journal entitled 'Nishtman'. Nishtman enjoyed relatively wide distribution from an enthusiastic audience. The journal's motto was 'Long live Greater Kurdistan', and it graced the front page of all 12 issues. In the first issue of Nishtiman, published in July 1943, they declared the creation of greater Kurdistan as their aim. The journal published Kurdish texts and poems, the organization's constitution, and articles on Kurdish history (Gunter, 2018).

Kurdish journalism in Iraq

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq emerged as one of the newly established nations encompassing the southern portion of Kurdistan (Bozarslan et al., 2021). Unlike Turkey and Iran after World War I, Kurds in Iraq in the 1920s enjoyed relative freedom of the press. The first printing press in Kurdistan, called 'The Government Press' was set up in Suleymaniah by the mandate British government. Certain British officials stationed in Kurdish territories, such as Major Soane and J. C. Edmonds, encouraged educated Kurdish elites to produce literature in their native language (ibid). They advocated for Kurdish language promotion and organized competitions to encourage the creation of the best short stories written in pure Kurdish (ibid). One of the main nationalist leaders of this era was Sheikh Mahmud Barzinj, who organized multiple revolts against the British and Iraqi governments during the inter-war period. For Sheikh Barzinj, the printing press was a valuable intellectual possession. Between 1920 and 1923, his government published six books, 18 issues of the weekly journal 'Peshkewtin', 14 issues of 'Bangi Kurdistan, and 16 issues of 'Roji Kurdistan', all of which contributed tremendously to the promotion of the Kurdish language.

Issue 3 of Bangi Kurdistan proclaimed the printing machinery as a very effective means for the unification of a nation's thoughts and feelings, and to protect the sciences and literature of a people.

Other efforts were made by nationalist Huzni Mukriyani, who bought a printing press and used it to print 23 books, the magazine 'Zari Kurmanji' and the weekly journal 'Runaki'. Another effort was Piremerd's, a patriotic poet. Piremerd opened a publishing house in 1926 and began publishing the journals 'Jin' and 'Jian', which contained short stories, poetry, newspaper articles, and sketches.

Kurdish journalism in Syria

Figures like Celadet, Kamaran, and Sureya Bedirkhan were exiled from Istanbul in 1919, during Ataturk's War of Liberation. Thereafter, they moved their nationalist efforts to Syria. Throughout the 1930s to the mid-1940s, the Bedirkhan family and the Kurdish intelligentsia exiled to Syria made grand contributions to the Kurdish language and journalism. The first Kurdish book published in Syria appeared in 1925. In 1932, Celadet Bedirkhan launched the socio-political and literary magazine "Hawar" from Damascus. Hawar was the catalyst for a broader movement, as it popularized the Latin alphabet systematized by Celadet himself. Hawar's 20th issue declared that Kurmanji was no longer purely an oral language, but that it had become a written language. Another significant effort occurred in 1941 with the introduction of the magazine "Ronahi," catering to Kurdish readers in Damascus (Bozarslan et al., 2021). Utilizing the Latin alphabet, the Bedirkhan family clandestinely transported journals like "Hawar" (Cry) (1932–43) and "Ronahî" (Light) (1935) from French Syria into Turkey (ibid). Later, Kamaran Ali Bedirkhan introduced "Roja Nû" (New Day) (1943–6), further advancing Kurdish literature within Kurdish communities and internationally (ibid). These publications featured notable works by Osman Sebri, Qedri Can, Nureddin Zaza, Cigerxwîn, Ehmed Nami, and Kadri Cemil Paşa (ibid).

Conclusion

One can conclude that Kurdish journalism developed during the Kurdish nationalist awakening of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Under the nation-states established after 1916, the Kurdish language itself was subject to systematic erasure, which only made the Kurdish language more central to Kurdish ethnonationalism. The banning of Kurdish in private and public spheres did not dissuade the Kurds, rather a transition from Kurdish as an oral language to a written one was made. Kurdish rose above local vernaculars. Kurmanji, especially, was organized and systematized with the Latin alphabet and popularized among the Kurds of Bakur and Rojava. In Iran and Turkey, determined efforts were made at times when the central state was weakest. In Iraq and Syria, Kurdish journalism could operate with the lax policies of the French and British mandates. Additionally, one can conclude that it was primarily nationalist actors, such as Sheikh Barzinj, Simko Shikak, and Celadet Bedirkhan, that largely developed printing in Kurdistan. They treated Kurdish journalism as a political and cultural project, which could advance the Kurdish national cause for liberation.

The emergence of Kurdish journalism was not merely a response to linguistic suppression. It  also acted as a catalyst for Kurdish nationalist movements. Journals like "Hawar," "Ronahi," and "Roja Nû" not only disseminated information but also fostered a sense of Kurdish identity and solidarity among dispersed communities. The Kurdish nationalist awakening and publications in Kurmanji and Sorani created a linguistic base that became the foundation for Kurdish ethnonationalism. Kurdish journalism helped the spread of the written Kurdish language, and this led to the emergence of written literature in Kurdish. This linguistic revolution fostered a shared language among many groups who were previously speaking in their local vernaculars. In this way, a shared spoken and written language brought about a sense of belonging among those who could understand it and speak it. Hence it could be argued that it was journalism that paved the way for Kurdish ethno-nationalism.

Today, Kurdish journalism remains crucial in the ongoing struggle for Kurdish rights and recognition. Despite persistent challenges, Kurdish journalists continue to play a vital role in documenting Kurdish history, advocating for linguistic rights, and amplifying Kurdish voices on the global stage. In essence, the story of Kurdish journalism is one of resilience, determination, and defiance against oppression.

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